A new report published by the World Bank and release Monday 15th March, 2010, has uncovered the hindering effect of a form of corruption hardly spoken about on the development efforts across the African continent.
Titled: ‘Africa Development Indicators 2010, this report brings to light the fact that most studies on corruption focus on money exchanging hands in the form of bribery, involving ‘‘powerful political designees or kickbacks to public officials’’, but that ‘Quiet corruption’ also poses quite a substantial threats to the continent’s development.
The World Bank report refers to this ‘Quiet corruption’ as the failure of public servants to deliver goods or services paid for by governments. It noted that it is ‘‘pervasive and widespread across Africa and is having a disproportionate effect on the poor, with long-term consequences for development.’’
According to the report, ‘quiet corruption’ leads to an increasingly negative expectation of service delivery systems, causing families to ignore the system. It added that although smaller in monetary terms, this form of corruption is particularly harmful for the poor, who are more vulnerable and more reliant on government services and public systems to satisfy their most basic needs.
“Quiet corruption does not make the headlines the way bribery scandals do, but it is just as corrosive to societies,” Shanta Devarajan, Chief Economist for the World Bank’s Africa Region, was quoted in a press release, obtained from the World Bank. “Tackling quiet corruption will require a combination of strong and committed leadership, policies and institutions at the sectoral level, and – most important – increased accountability and participation by citizens.”
The report features data on the key sectors of education and agriculture in a number of countries, among them Kenya, where a 2004 report, for instance, found that 20 percent of teachers in rural primary schools were absent during school hours. It also cited two surveys carried out in Uganda, where teacher absentee rates turned out to be 27 percent in 2002 and 20 percent in 2007.
With regards to agriculture, the report found out that poor controls at the producer and wholesaler levels resulted in 43 percent of the analyzed fertilizers sold in West Africa in the 1990s lacking the expected nutrients, which means that they were basically ineffective.
And in health, more than 50 percent of drugs sold in drugstores in Nigeria in the 1990s were counterfeit, according to a number of studies.
‘‘One of the most damaging aspects of quiet corruption is that it can have long-term consequences,’’ the report stated, and added, ‘‘a child denied a proper education because of absentee teachers will suffer in adulthood with low cognitive skills and weak health. The absence of drugs and doctors means unwanted deaths from malaria and other diseases. Farmers used to receive diluted fertilizers may choose to stop using them altogether, leaving them in low-productivity agriculture.’’